Protect Yourself, Protect Others

As a teacher, I want to reflect on their media consumption and media production in order to monitor if their are hurting others or themselves. I think this is the biggest benefit of reflection: students learn to think about the what they've learned from an activity but also, and perhaps more importantly, they learn to think about the consequences of their media choices.

In terms of media consumption, there are many things that we need to do to help students to "protect" themselves. We have to teach students how to determine credibility, how to be critical, and not to always take things for face value. When researching, students need to look for credible sources; when making purchases, students need to know how to not be swindled; when listening to/viewing advertisements, students need to know how to process the information being thrown at them. When we show media in the classroom, we need to be sure that we pick media that is truly beneficial, and will not be extremely upsetting to students. These are our responsibilities concerning our students. We also have a responsibility to the community and school administrators to keep them updated on our media use and production. The more informed everyone is, the more understanding there is with regards to using/teaching media in the classroom.

In terms of media production, we need to teach students how to protect themselves AND "protect" others. Hobbs talks about the issues that come with "self disclosure" and how some teens might be too uninhibited online. We do indeed need to teach students to share information responsibly on the Internet, and we also need to teach the responsibility that comes with anonymity on the Internet. I've heard of cases where students harass each other or teachers  but they can't be identified because they use an alternate identity or a screen name. With the Internet (potentially) comes a new identity (i.e. Hobbs' son, Roger) and we need to teach the morals of such new identities - we need to treat others with respect regardless of who we are online. When I use a classroom blog and/or Facebook page in my class, I plan on assigning my students "secret identities" - these will help students to be able to share freely and will protect students from others online, but because I know the secret identities, I can hold students accountable for their actions online. I hope that this method will set the example for Internet interactions - protect yourself and protect others.

In terms of protecting others, I was interested in Hobbs' comments on "relational aggression" and the various disturbing YouTube videos she described. I was horrified by the animal abuse videos described and saddened by the pranks and scare videos that I read about. At the end of Chapter 6, Hobbs talks about how we shouldn't make our students feel guilty about their media choices, as this will only make them resistant to what we are saying, and we should teach them "critical autonomy." I feel this is a critical element of successfully teaching proper digital citizenship, but I was unsure as to how exactly I should do this. Thankfully, this question was answered in the next chapter, when Hobbs talked about the "Ethics of Representation." Of specific note was the "ethical triangle" (Figure 7.2) and the questions that the author should ask him/herself about Intentionality, Consequences, and Social Good. I think that as I teach my students to reflect on these elements of their media use/consumption, they will become the good digital citizen that both Hobbs and myself want them to be, without ostracizing or alienating this fragile group of human beings.

On time!

The main thought that I had while reading (that was actually brought up in the reading) was that we need to teach our students to always consider the other side of the issue. In the Hobbs reading, it mentioned a documentary about army recruiters and army deterrers (?) in lower income schools. However, the students creating the documentary didn’t think to include the point of view of the recruiter, the pressures and difficulties they have to deal with.

There are always at least two sides to a story, often more. I know a large fault of mine is that I will take what is presented to me at face value – as fact. This is something I’ve been trying to correct recently. And I think my struggle is one that my students will have as well – how do I question everything so I get the real story, but don’t be skeptical to the point of disbelieving everything. I don’t want to call people liars, but I want to get behind their biases so that I can see the whole picture without them standing in the way.

A good way to do this when writing or researching a story is to write down (either on the board as a class or have the students brainstorm on their own, though as a class may be more beneficial because others will think of things that one may now) all the different people involved in the situation or event being explored. Then, write down questions about each person concerning the topic. Always ask how they are involved and what their view on the subject might be. Caution the students to never put words into a subjects’ mouth. Always ask them what they think. If you can’t find someone in that area to interview, make sure that that gets mentioned so that people know that the other side of the story isn’t being represented.

There’s a saying that history is written by the winners. I believe this largely to be true. I think a great research exercise for students might be to research the “losers” and rewrite history as they saw it. A good example of this would be to read a journal from a slave in the ante-bellum southern states. Slaves were the subjugated group, so their perspective would be different than the owners of the same era that wrote many of the documents still surviving. The assignment could either be to simply write a piece from the “loser’s” point of view on the events that happened, or to write them as if the “losers” won. Either could be an interesting exercise on how things can change based on who is telling the story. (This could also be done with verbal storytelling instead of writing a paper.)

I feel like my role as a teacher is to ensure that my students at least try to consider other points of view while considering news articles as well as advertisements. Advertisements especially actually. They are even more likely to skew ideas based on their target audience in order to sell the product. I need to ensure my students are aware of this, and hopefully try to increase their confidence in themselves through other activities.

MY experiences

As far as exploring difference is concerned, I think that the line in "Cool Like Me" says it all, "But her real experience of us is limited to the space between her Honda and her front gate; thus, much of what she has to go on is the vibe of the surroundings and the images emanating from the television set..." EXACTLY! I think we're right in thinking that the media portrays our world from one side, usually. It shows racism and impossible body images as if they are all there is in our world. But really that's just one experience or one neighborhood 'vibe' among the millions out there, even in America. I think that in order to engage the media in our classrooms to better explore difference we should encourage our students to talk about and record their own experiences with different issues instead of internalizing and owning everything they see on TV. This has nothing to do with politics, not really anyway. It doesn't have anything to do with who's right or wrong, but about what their own personal experiences tell them about the world. NO ONE can refute or discredit what you have actually experienced. But how can they have any experiences unless they are encouraged to try new things, meet new friends, trust new people, and leave the TV off. This might sound like a really bad example, but for instance, if there's a general lack of respect being displayed for the elderly in the community (or just older teachers at the school) the media may be perpetuating the notion that older people are stupid, useless, boring, or mean. It's not that hard to believe when you pay attention to some of the programs on TV now that show parents and the elderly as forgetful, unfair, or even stupid. We could ask our students to interview someone in that age range and they must return with a reason why that person is NOT what the media shows them to be. You could do this with all kinds of stereotypes. This may help students understand that what is being taught by the media is not always true across the board. I think from a director's stand, it is my responsibility to be the one to break the mold by casting talented girls who may not "look the part". I understand that perhaps sometimes there is a certain look that goes with a concept of a show, but in the high school classroom where education and gaining experience is the whole point, there is no need or room for that. The problem with our society today, from my experience, is that the adults in our children lives seldom discuss these media lies and misconceptions with them...which, by default, begins supporting the messages. If we do not want the students believing everything they see, then we must lead by example and do something different....like casting the 'unexpected' actor.

I have a difficult time with articles and discussions about racism and sexism. I hate bigotry and unfairness, but I personally have not had the horrible experiences that others have had with it. Many will argue that it's because I'm a white girl who was born and raised in a white community that didn't have any conflict, but that's an unfair assumption that cannot be made until they know my own history.

I'm not saying I know more than any other 24 year old, but just trying to explain that in my personal experience of traveling and living all over the country (and 8 foreign countries) this hatred and negativity that the media portrays and claims to be so prevalent has not shown itself to me as much. I guess my question is how can I relate to or address the issues that my students may have or think they have, when I do not have the same experience? Empathy and understanding can only go so far in covering for the lack of personal experience. I'm not saying that I've NEVER experienced sexism or bigotry; I have and it's hurt very deeply. I guess I just think that we, as a society, focus so much on what needs to change and be fixed that we forget about how far we’ve come. We need to press forward, yes, but if we never celebrate and enjoy the changes we HAVE made, then we’ll never feel the hope of actually getting to where we want to be. The media has a way of twisting the facts, for good and for bad. How can I make sure that the students are comparing the messages to their own evidence and experiences and THEN creating their opinions? How do I get them interested in learning for themselves? I do not really have an answer for this.

Blog Post #7 - Media and the Self

I think that two of the most important things we can do to help our students navigate in a media-oriented world are to help them understand their own place in different types of media and the effect of their media consumption. I remember being a teenager and using different types of media every day, and I can only imagine how much more teenagers nowadays use the media. As Hobbs mentioned several times in the reading, the media that teens consume effects them on a personal level and impacts the way that they view their place in the world, even away from the computer screen or TV screen. Part of our job, as educators who utilize media in the classroom, is to help our students look at how their media consumption affects their lives. We can do this by helping them disassemble the different types of media that they consume and analyze the different appeals and components of those sorts of media. This involves students participating in the media they consume in an entirely new way. Instead of just consuming media, they are consuming it critically. This is really essential, I think, because it’s important for students to be able to recognize when media is helping or hindering them. Helping them to understand the effects of their media consumption, whether positive or negative, can help students to realize the roles media plays in their life and then make healthy decisions when it comes to the media they watch and engage in. In addition, I think analyzing media helps students to realize what role they play in the media, for example, are they a customer being sold a product, are they looking to media as an instruction manual for life or relationships, are they part of a community of learners and thinkers who are engaging in meaningful tasks, etc. Part of understanding the effects media has on their lives is the realization that their roles change and that they have control over what they consume and how they choose to approach various forms of media.
Even before I read this chapter, I thought it was really important to help students understand how media can have both negative and positive effects, but there were a few things that Hobb mentioned that I didn’t even think about. For example, the part where she talks about how there may be an emotional fallout when you have students examine media that they use or enjoy and then critique its negative aspects. This really stuck out to me because it’s something I would have never even considered and planned for if I hadn’t read this chapter. It makes a lot of sense though because I think we are very connected to and even protective of the media that we consume. I know that in situations where people have criticized a radio show I listen to or a television show that I like to watch, I do have a defensive emotional response and I feel like I have to explain away the criticism of that particular piece of media. I think this is something we’ve probably all experienced in one way or another, but it is not something I had previously attributed as a possible response my students could have. I know realize that when I’m helping my students navigate their way through media analysis and understanding their place in the world of media, I need to be aware of how to best approach and plan for how my students will perceive and react to different activities. In order to do this, I need to be aware of my students and what their wants and needs are and how they feel about media use in their own lives. Only then will I be able to help them learn what is relevant and important to them in regards to media.
When I was reading the Hobbs article and reading/looking through the Seeing and Writing readings, I kept thinking about how important it is for students to be aware of what they are gaining (good and bad) from a piece of media. For example, if students looked at the migrant mother picture, they might be learning about history or they might be gaining other things like a depiction of what motherhood is like or a depiction of depression or disinterest. In any case, I think it is important for students to realize how a piece of media affects them. An activity that I think would help students to do this would be to have them choose 3 different examples of one type of media that they consume (e.g. three musicians they like, 3 blogs that they read, and 3 social networking sites that they use) and then do a comparison/contrast project. You could have them investigate the three different pieces of media that they chose and then record information about them like: what aspects of the piece of media do you like or dislike, how do each of these pieces of media make you feel, what is the purpose of this piece of media, etc. After they investigate their chosen media sources, students will then create a Venn diagram with three circles for each piece of media they researched. They can compare the aspects of the media that are similar as well as record the differences. Students will then use the different aspects of the media examples that they have in their Venn diagrams to write a short essay on how each of the pieces of media affects them. For example, if I was a student and I chose to research 3 radio shows I like, I might talk about in my essay how a radio show that I like discussed financial information which makes me feel worried about my own finances. In this way, students are not only investigating the types of media that they enjoy and consume on a regular basis, they are also analyzing the effects that those pieces of media have on them personally. This activity would be great if you paired it with in class discussions of different topics relating to media (like ethics of media, common media appeals, etc). Pairing it with other activities like this would help students to be more effective in explaining how their chosen pieces of media affect them in their final essays.

Media Reflection

I think the main thing students need when approaching media is trust. When I say trust, I do not mean, “I trust my student/child completely, therefore I don’t think they need me to put any boundaries on their media usage”, I mean parents need to treat their children enough like adults that they feel comfortable opening up to them and sharing how they actually feel about media usage. If as a student in high school, I felt that my parents or teachers only wanted to talk AT me instead of having a conversation with me, I found it easiest to not respond at all. That way they could say everything they wanted to and feel like they had done their job, but I didn’t have to get too involved or actually share my opinion on the matter—I knew it would only get me in trouble. This isn’t what I want for my students. I want to create an environment where students feel they can ask the hard questions. Most of the time, this won’t happen in a large classroom setting, but if students understand that as a teacher, I am willing to discuss hard topics with them, my hope is that they will feel comfortable enough to approach me with questions and concerns. I loved the example of the Health teacher in Hobbs’ book who let the students have an open ended discussion about different current celebrities. It was very similar to the activity we did in class for Mac/PC users. By letting the conversation flow freely, the teacher was able to gauge exactly how the students felt about the matter because they were actively engaged in a conversation they cared about. If I was the student, at this point in the conversation, if I had questions about body image or anything discussed in class, I would feel comfortable going and talking with my teacher one-on-one after class because I would know she trusted my peers and I to have a conversation about topics that may normally be considered ‘taboo’.

The other side of trust that I feel students need to have an appreciation and understanding of is the idea of responsibility. As facilitators of hard discussions in the classroom, we need to be able to tell our students that it is their responsibility to be aware of what they are viewing. No matter what, even if parents try to secure the internet from their children, more often than not, you will stumble across inappropriate material and it is fairly easy to stumble across yourself. By understanding the concept of responsibility for their own choices, my hope is that students will choose to be responsible adults and stay away from inappropriate things. Obviously, this is only partially realistic, but if students don’t think we believe that they can be responsible, they will never try and disprove us. Set high standards and let them reach as high as they can.

In Seeing and Writing, I read Omayra Sanchez, a piece written by a woman about a little Colombian girl stuck in a collapsed water-filled building just before she was pulled out by the Red Cross. She does not look afraid or upset by her situation because she spent her entire life in this mindset—death is walking right next to you every second of the day. The author states, “Western culture forces us to ignore anything that is inexplicable or uncontrollable, like poverty, death, sickness, or failure.” I think this is very profound and good to keep in mind as educators. All too often we try to hide the truth from our students in an attempt to protect them from the realities of life, but by trusting them and understanding that students are going to be confronted with difficult life choices at an early age whether we like it or not, will allow us to face the battle head on instead of floating above the clouds pretending like everything is going to be fine if we say so.

Reading Response 7

I can’t ever remember having a candid and open conversation about media – not in schools and not in my home.  There were unwritten rules that were established, but nothing explicitly stated.  I knew that I had to leave the door of our computer room open at home and that if something inappropriate showed up, I should turn off the screen.  Honestly, this seemed like enough for me.  I was never a techy, never spent extended amounts of time one the Internet, and even still don’t have a Facebook page.  After reading Hobbs though, I’m realizing that there is more involved in media than simply dirty images and blatantly offensive material.  There are subtle messages being taught and displayed in everything that is viewed – in YouTube videos, ads on television, games that are played.  Everywhere a person turns around both online, and in their everyday life, they are being bombarded with messages, both good and bad.

            I agree with Hobbs that there needs to be discussion about what students are viewing and how they are viewing.  I thought about how I would help student’s process this information and how they could decide what was appropriate for them, and I think that for me as a teacher, I would want to have classroom discussions.  I think that it could be really interesting and insightful to show different advertisements and talk about what they are selling, but more than just selling, what means they are using to prove their point.  If you notice home security commercials, they will show a lonely woman sitting by herself, which has nothing to do with thieves or home security.  But that image instills fear and helps the viewer seem vulnerable.  If I could show students different commercials like that, we could begin to talk about the messages that are being given.  After talking about the hints that are being given, we could talk about the different things that students view online – like the YouTube videos that Hobbs mentions – and then discuss how they feel about the things they view and participate in.

            The more I think about this topic, the more I realize that there is really no way to monitor every single thing that students do while they are online – as the students teacher or as their parent.  Really the only thing to do is to teach the students how to monitor themselves.  The more I have been in teaching classes, the more I have realized how important it is to me as a teacher to have my students form their own opinions and have confidence in what they are doing.  In order to do this, I think that students need to be presented with an unbiased description of the consequences of their decisions.  I would hope that as a teacher, I will be able to help students feel comfortable and confident in themselves enough to decide for themselves what they will view and how they will interpret the things they see.  I would also hope that students will be able to have enough faith me in and in themselves to share what is happening with them online.  I would hope that they would report cyber bullying or want to discuss what they are doing online when no one can see.

            I guess the problem is that I just don’t really know how…

Responsibility & Morals

“How might you engage your students in reflecting on the media using disciplinary tools that you are familiar with?”

Right from the get go I want to talk to my students and discuss the different morals and standards represented in the media. Together we will discuss that we have the ability to choose our own morals and standards and cannot chose them for others. At the same time that means that media cannot choose them for us. I like the activity on page 110 that has the students come up with a Venn diagram of two famous people and discussing risk and responsibility with the examples of their two celebrities. By having students discover the principles of risk and responsibility they will see their own risk and responsibility within their artform. I would love to then gear the conversation to risks and responsibilities we have in our theatre department. I would ask if we should do certain shows and split the class into two sides one that is focusing on the risk and the other focusing on the responsibilities. By having both together as a class we can come up with the pros and cons of each, and at the conclusion of the activity we will be able to declare where we stand and why.

Students will understand why we choose to view and produce that which we do if we address it with a moral compass rather than a moral panic. They, just like adults, want to know the reasons why or why not. They need to be told the positive and negative consequences, not just a person telling them no, without reason or explanation. With this, we need to direct our students with the disciplinary tools that Hobbs suggests. I liked the example of the lesson that Hobbs did using the scary maze YouTube videos. By asking the students what they thought and felt rather than telling the students that they are harmful and bad, the students were able to discover that by themselves. Even if kids felt that they were totally innocent and just humorous, they were able to see the reactions of their classmates that it did affect. The key principle is to put the responsibility on the students. If their art affects others negatively then they need to man up to the fixing of the situation. By telling the students that, they will know their boundaries. We can’t expect them to know that without guiding them, because the media seems to have no boundaries now a days, and that is all that the students know. Along with video and TV media, our students are faced with online media where others not only post personal things about themselves but about others. Hobbs’ diagram on page 136 is very helpful in helping students realize that whether they like it or not, there are 3 different types of people that they are “performing” for online: the author, the audience and the subject. Very often online, other people are the subject and they are soliciting others without permission to the audience, which is usually the entire internet world. If our students realize that there are others that are experiencing our posts and that it affects them, we will be more conscious of our responsibility and not run the many risks of offending, affecting, exploiting and thrashing. We need to just teach and remind rather than chastise and guiltify our students. They need to be taught in order to change bad habits that this higher technology has created. I will make it my goal to inform, teach and constantly remind my students the relevancy of morals and responsibility.

Open Your Eyes

I really liked the lesson plan at the end of chapter six as a way of teaching my students disciplinary tools they need when it comes to the media. What I’ve learned over my years as a media user is to never trust just one source or sight. You have to pull information from all different resources to really create your own informed opinion on a subject. In addition, I have learned the importance of sight blockers. There are things that people put online that are not in line with my morals, this doesn’t mean that I want to force my morals on my students but they do need to understand the consequences of their actions. The subject of porn is a risky thing to teach students about and I am not quite sure how I would bridge that topic. It is something that I believe needs to be addressed when media becomes an integral part of a class. The more a student, or any person for that matter, is exposed to the media the more they are prone to be prey for pornographic websites. Students need to know what they are up against. I think it would also be beneficial to do what Hobbs suggests and “disrupt students’ pleasure with advertising and popular culture” by showing how media is a form of manipulative persuasion.

Overall, I think that the best disciplinary tool that really encompasses all others is self-discipline. I can tell my students all day that pornography is bad and that not all media is good media, but unless they understand for themselves and gain their own self-discipline all I’ve taught them would amount to nothing. Students need to understand the importance of self-discipline, but I’m not sure how to go about teaching them this. I could maybe use art or a theatre activity such as mime to teach the effects of self-discipline—how art is born out of it. It would be a risk, but it might end up helping my students in more ways then one.

The Seeing and Writing article “Regarding the Pain of Others” really touched my heart. It made me think and analyze what it is that I am looking at when staring at a magazine. Hobbs mentioned the impact of the media as a type of superpeer, but I would like to unpack that peer and show what it is really made of. There is this video that a teacher once showed me of a model who took a few photographs for a magazine. The video began with her showing up onset, then the added makeup, and later the added computer work to make the model look like the end product—the magazine cover model. I remember the impact that that particular video had on me as a high school student. When the façade is revealed the audience’s eyes finally open—I could see for the first time that beauty wasn’t all society made it up to be. I think that doing this same thing for my students would be really helpful, and serve as a way for them to better understand the media and it’s goals. Namely, to advertise and sell products or ideas to those who are willing to listen. I want to impact my students in a way that will give them a critical eye in the future, which is what I believe Hobbs to be trying to help teachers to do. We need to inform our students so that they don’t blindly follow what is presented, but rather that they should desire to know for themselves if something is true or real.